OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
After people were banned on social media sites, including doctors, for saying that the believed that the COVID pandemic began with a lab leak, an agency within the United States government has finally said that it believes it too.
The U.S. Department of Energy has allegedly handed a classified report to the White House and key members of Congress that said it came to the conclusion that the pandemic was the result of a lab leak due to new intelligence, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The new report highlights how different parts of the intelligence community have arrived at disparate judgments about the pandemic’s origin. The Energy Department now joins the Federal Bureau of Investigation in saying the virus likely spread via a mishap at a Chinese laboratory. Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that it was likely the result of a natural transmission, and two are undecided.
The Energy Department’s conclusion is the result of new intelligence and is significant because the agency has considerable scientific expertise and oversees a network of U.S. national laboratories, some of which conduct advanced biological research.
The Energy Department made its judgment with “low confidence,” according to people who have read the classified report.
The FBI previously came to the conclusion that the pandemic was likely the result of a lab leak in 2021 with “moderate confidence” and still holds to this view.
The retired Dr. Anthony Fauci has continued to say that he believes the pandemic came about naturally, but has left open the possibility of a lab leak.
“If you look at the data that’s been accumulated by independent international evolutionary virologists, they feel pretty confident that this was a natural occurrence from an animal host into a human,” he said to Chris Wallace in December. “Has it been definitively proven? No. Is a lab leak possible? Of course, I keep a completely open mind that we don’t know definitively what the origin is. And that’s the reason why we want to keep investigating and get as much data as we can, so that we can prevent something like this from happening in the future. But the overwhelming data right now from independent people, with no horse in the race, feel rather strongly that it’s a natural occurrence.”
Fauci was the subject of massive criticism from Republicans before he retired.
In January Fauci responded to upcoming investigations by House Republicans, telling Fox News host Neil Cavuto that he has “nothing to hide.”
“I have a great deal of respect, Neil, for the process of oversight,” Fauci said. “I really do. I have nothing to hide, I can explain everything that I have done during the period of time that I was involved in that process. And I have no trouble with testifying before the Congress at all.”
“So, they want to get into this with you. And it could get pretty nasty. Are you prepared for that?” Cavuto asked.
“Yes,” Fauci responded. “I mean, I — like I said, Neil, I have no problem. I can defend everything that I have said and done. There was an explanation for it. This was a moving target right from the beginning. And people need to appreciate that, when something is obvious in January or February, that might not be the same in March, April, May, June, or the rest of the summer.”
“I have been completely, totally, 100 percent honest about everything,” Fauci said.
Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul issued a brutal statement to Fauci, the country’s lead immunologist who declared that he had no regrets about how he handled the pandemic.
During an interview, Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since Ronald Reagan’s first term in the early 1980s, was asked if there was anything he would do differently.
“I’m the first to admit I’m far from perfect, but when you say do over, you know, I really can’t see something that I would do completely over,” Fauci said.
Paul was not happy with Fauci’s remark.
“Likely there is no public figure, or public health figure, that has made a greater error in judgment than Dr. Fauci,” said Paul, who frequently clashed with Fauci during Senate oversight hearings into Fauci’s responses and recommendations regarding the pandemic.
“Think about it. This is right up there with decisions, some of them malevolent or military, to kill millions of people,” Paul said. “This is accidental, but it goes to judgment.”
“Historically, he will be remembered for one of the worst judgments in the history of modern medicine,” he said, going on to say he planned to try and hold Fauci “accountable” for funding the research.
“I will not only hold Dr. Fauci accountable, we will finally investigate why your tax dollars were sent to fund dangerous research in Wuhan,” he said.
